EE & R, 3_13: Between the Torah and the Prophets: The Prophetic Art
(For the previous installment of "Exodus, Exile and Redemption," click here. For ToC, click here.)
In contrast to their master, Moshe, who was told that “no man shall see Me and live,” the prophets are said to behold the face of Hashem, signifying direct awareness of His goodness. Based on the ideas discussed in the previous chapter, this means that they perceive the infinite future – where Hashem’s goodness is realized through the order inherent to creation itself – as if it were already manifest and defined in the present. Not mere abstract knowledge, theirs is a tangible experience of the good. Somehow, the prophets’ perception does not require an abandonment of the self, rooted in the here and now. They see the infinite good while remaining finite, individuated persons – retaining their mortal vitality, fully “alive.”
The goodness of Hashem is fully apparent only when viewed from the perspective of unending time – a perspective inaccessible to a human life rooted in the finite moment. Yet the prophets possess the unearthly ability to anchor the limitless future in the constraints of the present. Their divinely bestowed insight makes the eternal truths of Hashem’s plan accessible to human consciousness here and now, embedding these same truths in finite and temporal existence.
The magic of prophecy must not distract us from understanding the essence of the prophets’ craft in the simplest terms possible. What is the nature of the quantum leap the prophet takes from limitless eternity to bounded present? How does he traverse the chasm between the eternal and the immediate, carrying truths that transcend time into the lived experience of humanity?
The answer is deceptively simple: The prophet denies the divide between the infinite and the finite, between the unknown and the known. He allows his individual self to inhabit the realm beyond any self, notwithstanding the fact that the infinite is truly of a different order of being. As if there was no inherent contradiction in a finite person beholding the infinite directly, the prophet makes a move of transcendent identification and blurs the stark distinction between what is and what will be.
But we must press on further. Acting in contradiction to reality by denying it through ignoring it is but a falsehood that cannot last. What, then, is the enduring truth of prophecy?
Understanding the essence of the prophetic praxis entails considering what happens once one takes the boundless future as present: It becomes so. The mental state of transcendence adopted by the prophet makes itself true. For the prophet gives the form of the infinite, which is God’s goodness, present shape, his message the channel that crafts the here and now in the image of the ultimate good. The goodness that inhered only in the infinite is brought to bear on the finite, which takes on the qualities of the infinite.
The first step of the prophets is the hardest – nay, it is a lie by temporal standards. But once it is taken, the prophet is transformed, humanity is transformed, and the chasm between the finite and the infinite collapses. To craft the here and now in the image of the forever that will never fully be – that is the essence of prophecy. The prophet perceives humanity’s goodness, based on the laws of eternal history, as if it were current and realized; by doing so, he beholds a good God; and through that vision, he encourages humanity to be good, thus confirming the goodness of God that he beheld.
Herein lies the difference between Moshe and the prophets. The prophets allow their selves to inhabit unending eternity, which transcendental act of theirs makes present; Moshe insists on seeing reality such as it is objectively, without him viewing it.
It is in this sense that the Sages, unparalleled in their understanding of the Torah, taught that the prophets give human form to God:
How immense is the power of the prophets, for they portray a form to the Creator of all forms, as it is written: “And upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man upon it from above” (Ezekiel 1:26).1
The prophet, a mere man, must start the motion toward divine goodness. It is his human choice alone that enables the blurring between the finite realm of man and the infinite realm of God. And it is this element of human thought – that miraculous step toward the infinite – which the prophet accepts into his perception of God, Who becomes truly manifest in the human realm only through those willing to take the paradoxical step in His direction. Immense is the power of the prophets indeed!
To summarize: Moshe seeks an objective truth that involves no person at all; the prophets see in accord with the very fact that they see. Thus, the prophets see God as a person, for they introduce their own personhood into their vision – without it becoming untrue – in contrast to Moshe, who focuses on understanding things exactly as they are without adding his own influence.